Best Homemade Window Cleaner (Streak-Free Glass Cleaner)
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This No Streak Homemade Window Cleaner (known on the internet as Alvin Corn) is super easy to make, is much safer than a lot of the store-bought options, and leaves your windows and mirrors streak-free.
Plus it costs almost nothing to make, so it's easy on the budget too.
I personally think that it is so important to get Home Care and Personal Care Products that are toxin-free so that we, our families, and our world can be a lot more healthy.
Plus, you can save a TON of money by making these things yourself.
And it doesn't have to take a TON of time.
Benefits of Making Your Own Homemade Glass Cleaner:
1. Reduce Toxins In Your Home
Do you really want these things in your home?
propylene glycol
2 Hexoxyethanol
Ammonium Hydroxide
Mirapol Surf S-210
Viden EGM
Sodium C14-17 Sec-Alkyl Sulfonat
Fragrance Palette (The term fragrance can hide artificial fragrances are not healthy)
Liquitint Sky Blue Dye
Ick.
Yes, those are the ingredients in one of the more popular glass cleaners on the market.
Even if those chemicals don't make you feel bad, there's a lot of evidence that they aren't healthy, so it's a good idea to do what you can to remove toxins from your environment as much as possible.
2. Save Money
You can make your own cleaner for way less money than you'd spend on a commercial cleaner. Even if it's not cheaper, I'd still prefer to make my own for the other benefits.
3. Clean Up the Environment
Do you really want to add these toxins to our already toxically overloaded environment? I am convinced that one of the main problems regarding the onslaught of autism, auto-immune disorders, and cancer is the prevalence of toxins in our world. Every time you can use a toxin-free product over a toxin-laden one, you help the environment.
I used to use just plain vinegar to clean our mirrors and glass. Truth be told, we didn't really clean our windows often. Just didn't really think about it.
We'd put some plain vinegar on a piece of newspaper and wipe it all over the mirror.
It worked OK, but it did leave some streaks that were a little hard to get off.
This cleaner, however, is great. I found it on a number of sites all over the internet (not sure who created it, but it's called Alvin Corn) and I must say, it's a real winner.
This cleaner does contain isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, which some people may wish to avoid, but you can use vodka instead. It'll just cost more that way.
What's the Purpose of the Cornstarch?
One of the things you'll notice in this formula is that it has cornstarch in it.
Wondering what it's doing in there? Me too…
Here's what one reader shared with me:
On a microscopic level, glass is not perfectly smooth. When you spray water on it, the water molecules get caught in the pits on the glass surface. Water also clings to itself through hydrogen bonding – the hydrogen atoms from two molecules cling together. Water stuck in the glass + water stuck to more water = streaking. Cornstarch (or dish soap or oil-even a couple drops of essential oil) disrupts the hydrogen bonding, thus preventing streaks!
Cool beans! A DIY house cleaning recipe and science lesson in one!
How Much Can You Save?
A ton.
Vinegar: costs about $.59 for 32 ounces at Aldi. So even if we double the price, let's say it costs $.04
Rubbing Alcohol: Based on current Rite Aid pricing – $.25 for 1/4 cup
Cornstarch: A local Midwest grocery chain has it for $1.39 right now. If the tablespoon per pound info I got is correct, then the cost for 1 tablespoon is about $.04.
Water: I am just going to call this $0.00. The current approximate cost per gallon in my city is $.002 per gallon :-).
So – it costs a total of $.33 to make 2 1/2 cups of Glass Cleaner.
How To Use
- Windows
- Mirrors
- Glass Appliances
- Stainless Steel
- Chrome
- Aluminum
- Ceramic
- Plastic
- Do NOT use this on marble or coated eyeglasses, however!
Recipe Notes
- Shake: The spray needs to be shaken well each time you use it since the cornstarch might settle to the bottom or clog up your spray nozzle otherwise.
- Corn Alternatives: Though you're not eating this (please don't), if you need to avoid corn, other starches like tapioca or arrowroot should work as well.
- Cloth Options: You can use microfiber cloths or rags to wipe your surfaces clean. I prefer these options or newspaper to paper towels since paper towels leave lint and are more wasteful.
(Note – microfiber is plastic so I'm not really a fan, though it does tend to clean pretty well. A helpful reader commented that rags work pretty well as long as you don't use fabric softener on them (which, by the way, typically has lots of toxins in it like artificial fragrance, so here's another reason not to use it!) - Label Recommendation: As you make more and more non-toxic home cleaners you will know what is what. This handy dandy Chalkboard Contact Paper is great for label-making.
- Color It: Add natural food coloring to the bottle so kids will know it's not water. Beet juice (from canned beets) is one inexpensive natural color or you could drop a bit of powdered beet juice in as well but just a bit so it doesn't cause clogging.
- Prevent Streaking: Some readers have had streaking issues. This may be from impure essential oils or hard water. If you have streaking issues, please share in the comments what brand of essential oils you used and if you have hard water. I recommend only using pure essential oils even for house cleaning because even though it's “just” for cleaning, you still are breathing in oils (and whatever “else” might be in the oils. Another option is to leave out the cornstarch and see how that works.
- Use Two Cloths: To avoid streaking, use two cloths: one to wash and one dry cloth for drying.
- Eyeglass Warning: You can use this Homemade Glass Cleaner on your eyeglasses, but only if they are plain glass. If they are coated, avoid using this since alcohol will cause crazing (small surface cracks) in polycarbonate plastic. It can also cause the lens coating to deteriorate, resulting in less durable glasses that are easily scratched.
- Avoid Marble: Do not use this cleaner on marble as it might cause damage.
- The key to making this mixture perfect is to be sure the water is warm enough to dissolve the cornstarch, but not boiling or super hot. Also, don’t add the cornstarch to the water, add the water to the cornstarch in the bottle. If you don’t do that you’ll end up with film over your glass.
After “perfecting” Alvin Corn, I added 2 extra tablespoons of alcohol (totaling 1/4 cup alcohol) to make Alvin Corn dry quicker (for less streaking) and make it easier for it to pick up gunk.
Homemade Window Cleaner
Ingredients
- 1/8 cup white vinegar (apple cider vinegar will work as well)
- 1/4 cup isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol (vodka is a safer choice)
- 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch (reduces streaking)
- 1 cup water
- 4-5 drops essential oil of choice (optional. Lemon, orange, or another citrus would be my choice here, but lavender or others would be nice as well.
- A good glass spray bottle
or quality BPA-free plastic spray bottle.
Instructions
- Boil the water. Let it cool a little bit.
- Add the cornstarch to the bottle. Then add the water to the bottle. Shake well to dissolve.
- Add the rubbing alcohol and vinegar. Shake again to dissolve.
- Shake well before each use to prevent the cornstarch from clogging the nozzle.
- Spray onto glass surface and wipe clean.
Notes
- Shake: The spray needs to be shaken well each time you use it since the cornstarch might settle to the bottom or clog up your spray nozzle otherwise.
- Corn Alternatives: Other starches like tapioca or arrowroot should work as well.
- Best Cloth to Use: You can use microfiber cloths or rags to wipe your surfaces clean. I prefer these options or newspaper to paper towels since paper towels leave lint and are more wasteful. (Note – microfiber is plastic so I'm not really a complete fan, though it does tend to clean pretty well. A helpful reader commented that rags work pretty well as long as you don't use fabric softener on them (which, by the way, typically has lots of toxins in it like artificial fragrance, so here's another reason not to use it!)
- Label your bottle: So as you make more and more non-toxic home cleaners you will know what is what :-). This handy dandy Chalkboard Contact Paper is great for label making.
- Color It: Add natural food coloring to the bottle so kids will know it's not water. Beet juice (from canned beets) is one inexpensive natural color or you could drop a bit of powdered beet juice in as well.
- Prevent Streaking: Some readers have had streaking issues. It's possible this is from impure essential oils or hard water. If you have streaking issues, please do share in the comments what brand of essential oils you used and if you have hard water. I recommend only using pure essential oils even for house cleaning because even though it's “just” for cleaning, you still are breathing in oils (and whatever “else” might be in the oils. Another option is to leave out the cornstarch and see how that works.
- Use Two Cloths To avoid streaking, use two cloths–one to wash and one very dry cloth to dry.
- Eyeglass Warning: You can use this Homemade Glass Cleaner on your eyeglasses, but only if they are plain glass. If they are coated, avoid using this since alcohol will cause crazing (small surface cracks) in polycarbonate plastic. It can also cause the lens coating to deteriorate, resulting in less durable glasses that are easily scratched.
- Avoid Marble: Do not use this cleaner on marble as it might damage it.
More DIY Healthy Home Recipes
Are you an avid frugal DIYer like me? Here are some more ideas of simple things you can make for your home to reduce your exposure to toxins and save money while you're at it!
Homemade Natural Cleaning Products
Natural Dishwasher Rinse Aid
Homemade Foaming Soap
DIY Scrubbing Cleaner (like Soft Scrub)
Best DIY Fruit Fly Trap
Easiest DIY Weed Killer
Homemade Cleaning Paste
Homemade Laundry Detergent
The images in this post were updated in Jan 2020. For reference, here's one of the original images.
What do you use to clean your mirrors and windows?
Wonderful post and wonderful blog! That’s fascinating that streaks are caused by water cling.
Question: Can we do without the essential oil since the starch is already disrupting the water cling? For me, the less ingredients the better.
In support of home-grown chemistry, I’d like to offer a correction:
True, water molecules stick together due to hydrogen bonding, which you can disrupt by adding stuff to the water. However, the hydrogens are actually repelling each other. It’s hydrogen-oxygen doing the clinging, both inside the molecule and between separate molecules.
Here’s the shortest way I can explain it:
First, think of two magnets. You can make them stick together if you put their opposite sides together, but if you put their same sides together, they will repel. Inside a water molecule, most of the electrons (which are negative) get pulled toward the two oxygen atoms (because oxygen has more protons, which are positive), leaving the hydrogen atom positively charged. Hydrogen bonding is when the slightly-positive hydrogen atom feels attracted to the slightly-negative oxygen atom on another water molecule. The hydrogens on separate water molecules would repel each other, not cling.
Thank you!!!
I have had great success with the homemade window cleaner above~no smears at all! Thank YOU I am about
to make another patch now.
Yay! Thanks for sharing.
I tried this recipe with cornstarch, but without essential oils, a couple years ago, but I did not have luck with cornstarch in the mix.
I use 1/4 C rubbing alcohol + 1/2 C Vinegar plus distilled water to fill a 32 oz spray bottle. I use 2 microfiber cloths. I spritz the first cloth with some spray and wipe the grime away, then follow up with the dry one to ensure no streaks. Sometimes I have to do the windows or mirrors twice, but only if they are particularly messy. (Usually this happens with the bathroom sink mirror where the kids get toothpaste all over it!)
The key, in my experience, is not to make your first cloth too wet and follow up with the dry cloth right away. When a window is super gross, especially an outside facing one, I spray the glass and wipe the majority of the grime off with a paper towel and then follow my above steps. So far this has turned out to be the fastest and easiest method for me. My kids can even clean the bathroom and leave a streak free mirror — virtually unheard of before I tried this, and that is worth it all to me! 😉
Thanks for sharing! I love kids cleaning the bathroom! Will they clean your toilets too? And the tub?
I am a mean mommy, so YES! They do… toilets, tubs and floors even! O:)
Tell me your trick about getting them to clean toilets. My youngest is particularly opposed :(.
No i-Pod/kindle/phone time, no computer time, no t.v. time.
Kids do just about anything to keep from losing those.
My youngest is 10. She doesn’t do toilets yet, but she will next year.
(I start them on bathroom duty in middle school.) That’ll be a wake-up call for her!
Nice. Love it. So do you have passwords on all of your devices or how do you keep them off of them?
I have been known to collect the devices and hide them in a lock box.
Luckily, it does not happen too often.
I recently heard my 24 year old advise one of the cranky teenagers that “Mom ALWAYS wins, so shut-up and get it over with!” Warmed my wicked mommy heart, that did! 😀
Oh my goodness! LOVE it. You have given me new inspiration and it was much needed.
But can I still use plastic spray bottle? I mean, that’s what I already have. Won’t the acidity of the vinegar affect the plastic bottle? And one more, after I wipe it off, do I need not to rinse it off with water? I mean, after you spray the mixture and wipe, that’s it?? Please reply bc it will be really helpful for me to actually do this.. Thanks XO
It depends on the quality of the bottle and of course it’s diluted. Vinegar is often solid in plastic bottles and I know that Bragg’s is careful to sell theirs only in quality bottles. You don’t have to rinse it. You can see in the comments some folks don’t think it works for them but hopefully it works for you!
Thank you very much for your reply! Another thing, does cane vinegar with 5% acidity work the same as a white vinegar? And can I use eucalyptus oil, as well? If so, how many drops should I put? Sorry for many questions, this is actually my first time doing this bc I greatly dislike the smell of windex when our glass is being cleaned.. Thanks again! XO
You’re welcome. I have no idea about cane vinegar. I have never used it. As for the eucalyptus – the same # of drops should be fine. Hope it works. I wonder if you are sensitive to artificial fragrances: https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/dangers-of-fragrances/
So i ran out of window cleaner, and needed something fast since I am having company over tonight. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of this mix. It did not clean my windows to a sparkly clean finish, nor did it leave them streak free. I even washed my kitchen window 3 times just to see the same spot still staring back at me from the glass. And my mixture is milky white like a fluffy cloud. I am using 99% alcohol, so maybe thats affecting something? Although I figured it would just enhance it. At least it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg to make 🙂
I’m not thinking that is the issue. For some reason this isn’t working for some people. I wonder if it could be something in the water? Are you using filtered water? I’m using other things now, but this did work well for me when I used it.
I just used this mix to try and wash my glass dining room table and it streak the (expletive deleted by blog owner) out of it … Did not work what so ever. My table looks worst than before I started. Sorry but your recipe just did not cut it in my book
I’m really sorry – some people love this and others don’t. I personally am moving towards microfibers for most of the time.
Your glass cleaner sounds great. My question is – I have heard you should not put EOs in plastic spray bottles as they cause a chemical reaction with the plastic. EOs should be put in glass bottles only. What is your opinion?
Thanks
Thanks for commenting. That is for straight, undiluted EOs. If that were true than any company selling any product that has EOs in it shouldn’t be stored in plastic. I still recommend high quality plastic or glass where possible.
Hello. I just found this website and have been spending time enjoying it! I’m learning quite a bit. I hope it’s not presumptuous to share my window cleaning recipe. I’ve been using it for decades and never had any trouble with streaking.
A very easy, non-measuring formula is this: Take any spray bottle, even an empty Windex bottle, (did you know Windex is 95% water?). Fill the bottle to the bottom of the neck with water. Fill half the neck with white vinegar and the other half with rubbing alcohol. That’s it. No streaking. No corn starch needed. I use Wintergreen Rubbing Alcohol for the scent. The trick to being streak free (other than the alcohol) is to use newspaper instead of a rag or paper towels, which leave lint behind.
To clean surfaces (counters, tubs, sinks, stovetop, etc.,) use plain old baking soda. (I keep mine in a shaker.) If you need a little extra scrubbing power, add a little fine salt. (For extra fine, run the salt through a coffee grinder.) If it’s a baked on type stain or grime, pour a capful of vinegar to the baking soda and then scrub. If you want to sanitize, use a spray bottle with half water and half bleach. Spray the area and wipe with a clean towel (cloth or paper). For all of my general cleaning needs, I’ve only ever needed vinegar, baking soda, rubbing alcohol and bleach. All inexpensive items.
Thank you! Totally fine. I don’t like using bleach – hope to have some other offerings for you all soon so stay tuned!
I have used this “window cleaner” as a pre-reatment for carpet stains, greasy stove and pet vomit. It works great on all those things. I really could not believe how it cleaned my stove top came and no streaking. Love this stuff.
Yea!! So glad to hear it!
This recipe for window cleaner works wonderful. Thank you for sharing ?
So glad to hear!!!